novelnext Chapter 69 My Grandmother, Zhao Zilong of Changshan
Chapter 69 My Grandmother, Zhao Zilong of Changshan
The two entered the house, and the old lady remained seated on the sofa.
She reached out and kept tapping her forehead.
Ask a question with each tap.
"How come I don't remember? How come I don't remember..."
Jiang Yu noticed that the old lady had very thick arms.
Very thick!
Judging by its appearance, it's almost as thick as his thigh.
Not the kind of fat-covered muscle, but the kind of massive arms of a weightlifting master.
Even when wearing long sleeves, his muscles are still clearly visible, making him look very imposing.
They look a lot like the door gods in New Year paintings.
If this arm were to participate in a slapping contest, wouldn't one slap send the head flying?
Jiang Yu carefully surveyed his surroundings…
He was observing what changes had occurred in the home yet again.
What's particularly noticeable is the wall behind the sofa.
A new picture frame appeared on the wall.
The photo frame contains a "family portrait" of the three family members.
The old lady sat in the middle, smiling and revealing a missing front tooth.
She held Jiang Yu's hand with her left hand and Jiang Ning's hand with her right hand.
All three of them were laughing happily.
The date in the bottom right corner of the photo is two years ago.
Jiang Yu stared at the photo for several seconds, then picked up the white medicine bottle from the coffee table.
The label reads "Donepezil Hydrochloride Tablets".
During the year he spent in the mental hospital, he saw many elderly patients.
Those elderly people who are delirious, don't recognize their children, and spout nonsensical "read" messages are taking this kind of medicine.
Jiang Yu noticed that the lid of the tin box on the bookshelf had been pushed up.
It usually contains various documents and bank cards, not much else.
He walked over and opened the tin box…
There are a lot more miscellaneous items inside.
Various supermarket membership cards, change, small items...
There was also an unfamiliar ID card.
Jiang Yu picked up the ID card and glanced at it…
The woman in the photo is around fifty years old.
With short hair, a square face, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, she looks very capable, like the kind of tough woman who can carry a gas cylinder up to the sixth floor.
He checked the ID card and it matched the old lady sitting on the sofa.
She was much younger when her ID photo was taken than she is now; her hair wasn't completely white yet.
She doesn't have as many wrinkles on her face, and she looks much more energetic.
Jiang Yu glanced at his "grandmother's" identity information.
Name: Zhao Zilong
Gender: Female
"Born: 194…"
Address: No. 3, Group 5, Tuanjie Street, Changshan City…
……
Jiang Yu stared at the three characters "Zhao Zilong" in silence for a long time.
He had seen many simple and straightforward old people's names.
After all, older people used to name their children very casually.
What are Gou Sheng, Cuihua, Fugui, Laicai...?
What are Er Ya, San Wa, Si Gou, Wu Mao...?
But he had never seen anyone of Zhao Zilong's caliber before.
What kind of family would name a baby girl Zhao Zilong?
What does it mean to hope your daughter will become a dragon?
Jiang Yu put his "grandmother's" ID card back.
Then I went into the extra room.
The situation inside was very "elderly".
However, his "grandmother" had a more severe hoarding habit than other elderly people.
Jiang Yu felt like he had walked into a scrap metal yard.
A pile of scrap metal, and a bumper from some unknown car...
These things were wiped clean.
The most outrageous thing is...
There was also a supermarket shopping cart and a marble ball on the street on the balcony.
It's one of those stone bollards on sidewalks to prevent motor vehicles from weaving through traffic.
Several "No Parking" cones were piled up next to the stone ball.
Jiang Yu walked up to the marble ball, squatted down, and pushed it forward with all his might.
The stone ball remained completely still.
These bollards all come in specific sizes.
It has a diameter of 30cm and weighs approximately 60kg.
It has a diameter of 40cm and weighs approximately 100kg.
It has a diameter of 50cm and weighs approximately 200kg.
Jiang Yu gestured roughly with his hands...
This is the one with a diameter of 40cm.
How the hell did they manage to get a 100-kilogram bollard into their home?
Did you bring it back from the supermarket shopping cart along the way?
Can it withstand that much weight?!
Jiang Yu walked out of the absurd room and came to the old lady.
"Grandma, I'll go freeze the popsicles, so they won't melt and taste bad."
"Okay, go ahead! Freeze it a little longer, eat it when it's frozen solid!" the old lady said, waving her hand.
Jiang Yu carried the bag of popsicles from the table into the kitchen.
Standing in front of the refrigerator, he opened the freezer compartment with the excitement of opening a blind box…
"Splash!"
A whole bunch of things fell out.
Colorful plastic bags filled with various frozen goods poured out like an avalanche.
The freezer was empty just before I went downstairs…
It is now in a "fully invested" state.
The freezer compartment mainly contains meat.
Frozen chicken legs, frozen ribbonfish, frozen ribs, frozen pork belly...
Some of the meat was so pale it had lost all its color; it looked frozen solid, probably some time ago.
Jiang Yu hurriedly stuffed them back into the freezer compartment and then quickly pushed the door shut.
He stood up again and opened the crisper drawer…
The condition of the fresh food compartment is even more outrageous than that of the freezer compartment.
Various leftovers were piled up together.
Layers upon layers of food, some covered with plates, some in lunchboxes, piled up like Tetris blocks.
There were also a few onions or eggplants covered in green mold, which were no longer clearly visible.
There was also a pile of unidentified jarred sauces on the refrigerator door.
Every bottle was opened, and a hard shell had formed at the bottle opening.
One of the fermented soybean pastes, with a yellowish label, had a production date that read "March 2003"...
Jiang Yu took out his phone and glanced at his chat history with the landlord.
The two-bedroom apartment became a three-bedroom apartment, and the rent increased from 1500 to 2000…
A new "grandma" has appeared in my WeChat contacts...
Besides the photos of him and Jiang Ning, the old lady also frequently appeared in the pictures.
There are pictures of her making dumplings in the kitchen, picking wild vegetables, and sewing clothes while wearing her reading glasses…
In every photo, all three people are smiling happily.
Jiang Yu looked at a few photos and then closed the album.
He put his phone back in his pocket, then silently placed his hands on the kitchen counter.
At that moment, it felt like countless excavators were operating simultaneously in his mind.
Boom boom boom, boom boom boom…
Every dig yields a harvest.
He took a deep breath…
I started to slowly sort out these things that I had "dug out".
First, let's start with his "sister".
The situation is the same as Liang Zhichao's.
But he still firmly believes that he is not sick.
There's something wrong with this world.
The turning point was Lin Wei and "Yu Shan".
Jiang Yu had never personally experienced a mountain disappearing just like that.
When he was a child, he had only ever seen mountains that suddenly appeared on television.
At the time, he thought it was because his internet speed wasn't fast enough.
A basketball court has been added downstairs, and a bridge has been built on the way to school...
This can be understood as the speed of our country's infrastructure construction, which is not surprising.
But the mountain is completely different now; it changed from "Yu Mountain" to "Gengge Mountain," and all the related information is different...
This caused Jiang Yu's resolve to waver.
Add to that Lin Wei's explanation, and the bond he now has with his only remaining family member, his "sister"...
In the end, he believed it.
Or rather, he compromised.
He was willing to believe.
Because Lin Wei's version was more reasonable and made him feel more at ease than the "the world has a problem" version...
It made him feel less lonely.
He no longer needs to be on edge, no longer needs to fight against things he can't understand.
It's much easier to be a sick person than a clear-headed outcast.
Now he has a younger sister, a good job, government support, and is no longer confined to a mental hospital…
Everything went too smoothly.
This job was practically made just for him by God.
Life is starting to get back on track…
He started to get used to having another person in the house, to having a little one wrapped around his waist in the back seat, to having an extra pair of chopsticks across from him when eating...
He even felt that perhaps after some time, he would be able to "remember" his sister.
Now he just needs to focus on recuperating.
But today, Grandma appeared.
The exact same plot.
The exact same routine.
If the "sister's appearance" is because he is sick and doesn't remember, then...
What about "Grandma"?
Is he sick?
Following this logic, the younger sister should also fully accept "Grandma" like Zhang Guiqin.
But now his sister says she doesn't recognize her grandmother.
What, is your sister sick too?
And Grandma's dementia is so outrageous, she doesn't even recognize her "sister"?
In my sister's eyes: My brother and I have depended on each other since childhood and grew up together.
In Grandma's eyes: I raised my eldest grandson; I have no granddaughter.
In my own eyes: Who are these two people?
The appearance of "Grandma" made Jiang Yu suddenly see the light.
He did nothing wrong.
That's absolutely right!
The world is wrong!
He suddenly had a bold conjecture: perhaps the world is constantly "changing"?
Some things didn't exist before, but suddenly they do.
However, it cannot appear out of thin air.
The suddenly added item comes with its own "storyline".
This "storyline" makes this change seem natural.
He was the only one who could perceive this "change".
Others who are unaware...
Their memories seem to have been "corrected"?
Every time the world changes and something new appears, their memories are updated accordingly.
So they always think "everything is normal".
Only his memories cannot be altered, so he feels that "something is wrong".
This explanation is far more reasonable than him being "sick".
That's why the "extra things" he's seen since childhood are said to have always existed, according to others.
Because other people's memories are "updated in real time".
Jiang Yu couldn't suppress the urge to smile.
He is not sick.
It is this world that is sick!
It keeps changing, keeps "refreshing," keeps stuffing things into it, and then rewrites everyone's memories seamlessly!
Following this line of thought…
Jiang Yu remembered the written test questions from the City Planning Bureau.
He was one of the few who chose "56 ethnic groups," while others only remembered "56 zodiac signs"?
Because in a certain change, the world changed "ethnicity" to "constellation".
His memory was not overwritten, so he remembers the original.
That's why he was able to get the only perfect score out of hundreds of people in the written test.
and many more…
So, does that mean the blond guy and that Sichuan girl and the other six are like me?
That means...
The city planning bureau is a special department that deals with "world renewal"!
This department is specifically looking to recruit people like them who can see the truth!
Why did Yushan suddenly disappear?
Because Yushan was originally a sudden spawn, and then it was dealt with, turning into something like Goubamaogengeshan!
After the problem is solved, a new "storyline" emerges, and in other people's eyes, Yu Shan never existed.
Why did Nagi Hikaru's car change from the old A8 to the new A8?
Maybe... that car was "refreshed" along with the world?
His memory hadn't been erased, so he still remembered what the old A8 looked like.
So what exactly is the "refresh" mechanism?
Is it random, or is it related to some kind of "anomaly"?
What does this mechanism have to do with the arrival of my sister and grandmother?
If it's all true...
Why did Lin Wei and Nagi Kō lie to me when they were in Yushan?
He was so close to the truth at that point.
Why does Lin Wei need to make everything "rational"?
Is it...
Are they unaware of the changes in the world?
Or rather... were their memories "refreshed"?
That doesn't make sense. They are departments that deal with change, so it's impossible that they are unaware of or "updated".
They should be the same as the five new recruits with yellow hair and themselves—all "sober individuals."
The key point is...
There was absolutely no need for Lin Wei and Nagi to tell such a lie.
why?
This is the only question Jiang Yu hasn't figured out yet.
He couldn't understand why Lin Wei and Nagi wouldn't admit that the Planning Bureau was a special department for dealing with anomalies.
Why complicate simple problems?
There's another question...
If this world is constantly changing, constantly being filled with new things, causing changes in relationships between people...
What were the identities of the younger sister and grandmother before they were "refreshed"?
Why did they become his family?
Was it all just a coincidence?
Just as Jiang Yu was deep in thought, Jiang Ning rushed in looking flustered.
"Brother, something terrible has happened! You have to go check on that old lady!"
"Hmm? What's wrong with the old lady?"
"She...she's...you'll see for yourself!" Jiang Ning didn't know how to describe it.
Jiang Yu frowned and quickly ran out of the living room.
He noticed that Ms. Zhao Zilong was no longer on the sofa.
at the same time…
Strange noises were coming from the extra room.